Got a OS X installation DVD?

emosun wrote:

question mark face

That means it can't find anything to boot from. I'd check to see if the HDD is properly plugged in.

Sutekh94 wrote:

emosun wrote:

question mark face

That means it can't find anything to boot from. I'd check to see if the HDD is properly plugged in.

yes the drive is plugged in and running

philscomputerlab wrote:

Got a OS X installation DVD?

nope might have an os 9 one but the drive would only read 8.4 from what i remember reading

Yeah I was going to say an original iMac comes with 8.5 if you are talking about the Bondi, later 333mhz models (fruit colours) came with 8.6.

King_Corduroy wrote:

Yeah I was going to say an original iMac comes with 8.5 if you are talking about the Bondi, later 333mhz models (fruit colours) came with 8.6.

Actually, the very first iMacs shipped with 8.1: http://lowendmac.com/1998/original-imac-rev-a/ Wasn't until a bit later when they started shipping with 8.5.

And to OP, I'd also suggest finding a boot CD.

Woah, that means my bondi has been upgraded. 🤣

Sutekh94 wrote:

And to OP, I'd also suggest finding a boot CD.

I would have to buy one as the mac can't read burned disks , even burned audio cd's are a no go in it.

It was able to read a "cake" album so much so that it detected an audio program on the disk it wanted to install , so I at least know the drive works

emosun wrote:

Sutekh94 wrote:

And to OP, I'd also suggest finding a boot CD.

I would have to buy one as the mac can't read burned disks , even burned audio cd's are a no go in it.

It was able to read a "cake" album so much so that it detected an audio program on the disk it wanted to install , so I at least know the drive works

If it's a 400Mhz or better model, booting from an external hard disk with OS8/9 installed on it would be the other option.

brassicGamer wrote:

If it's a 400Mhz or better model, booting from an external hard disk with OS8/9 installed on it would be the other option.

nope rev.A

emosun wrote:

brassicGamer wrote:

If it's a 400Mhz or better model, booting from an external hard disk with OS8/9 installed on it would be the other option.

nope rev.A

Nuts. Thought that might be the case. Well, only other thing you could do aside from getting a CD would be to remove the HD (not a trivial task, I know) and clone an OS from another Mac of similar vintage. I don't know why I assume people have more than one old Mac lying around...

i do have an identical working one.

i didn't want to open it in fear of breaking it as well

Have you tried resetting the pram and nvram. My rev.C imac did the same thing. It can boot os9 and osx 10.1 and 10.2. Installing the os works fine, but when you restart the computer it refuses to boot off the hard drive. nvram reset --> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

If this doesn't work try booting into open firmware and see if the computer even finds any bootable device, or any device for that matter.

ok im in the open firmware how do i detect drives with it

Have you tried resetting the nvram or pram? I'd do that first before playing with open firmware. hold command, option, P, R when turning on your mac and don't let off until you have heard the 2nd bong sound (one from the initial startup then the 2 from the nvram reset.) then release the keys. The computer will take slightly longer to boot to reconfigure bootable devices. If this doesn't work, then we need to see if the computer even reads the hard drive (the open firmware part)

yeah i already tried resetting it and it was a no go

Well, now you're in the same boat as me. It has to do with the NVRAM not setting (or finding) the specific bootable device.

Here are some commands in open firmware to find out the address of the hard drive.
http://www.macfreek.nl/memory/Open_Firmware
http://www.firmworks.com/QuickRef.html

*edit* I'll bring home my iMac and report anything useful.

Dropcik wrote:

Well, now your in the same boat as me. Its got to do with the nvram not setting (or finding) the specific bootable device. […]
Show full quote

Well, now your in the same boat as me. Its got to do with the nvram not setting (or finding) the specific bootable device.

here are some commands in open firmware to find out the address of the hard drive.
http://www.macfreek.nl/memory/Open_Firmware
http://www.firmworks.com/QuickRef.html

*edit* Ill bring home my imac and report anything useful

ok the open firmware keeps freezing when i try to enter commands

That's definitely not supposed to happen. Have you tried to reset the PRAM battery?